Pooky is Garfield's huggable teddy bear and best friend, that Garfield discovered stuffed in a drawer. Pooky debuted in October 23, 1978. He most recently appeared on April 16, 2014.

Personality

Garfield sometimes communicates with Pooky as if he were a living animal; he can also be over-protective of Pooky. When Pooky lost an eye, Garfield requested a new eye for Pooky as his Christmas present. Garfield isn't shy to show his love for Pooky, often grabbing him in hugs making Jon jealous. Certain strips have shown Pooky as sentient. In one instance, we see Pooky rollerblade past Jon, who assumes Garfield is playing a prank. However, we then see Garfield at the other end of the room, implying that Pooky is skating under his own power. Pooky's first appearance was October 23, 1978. His latest appearance was on April 16, 2014. Over the years, Pooky has had several close calls; losing a leg, an arm, and an eye, but Garfield has always been by his side.

Garfield and Pooky

In a 1987 sequence when Garfield had amnesia, Pooky cried out a tear when Garfield didn't want to play with him, along with Jon and Odie, who also cry. He actually does have an absent mind himself, but has no brain, or common sense, because he is a teddy bear. He enjoys what Garfield does, because Pooky is his only friend, who doesn't criticize his sloppy-like attitude. He is the sidekick of the Caped Avenger, also wearing a cape. He had a brief cameo in Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.
Pooky was bigger in the first film. In the second film, he is a tiny Ty-Beany Baby doll with a shaking-rattle inside him. He also appears in the live-action stage play of A Special Garfield Christmas, held at California theatres, near Thanksgiving and Christmas, also confirming that he is a teddy bear, who first belonged to Jon. Pooky volunteered in the stage play, A Garfield Christmas Special to go down to fix the power with Jon, but his fate is unknown after Garfield is explained why he must be able to change his ways of attitude. In "The Garfield Show" Nermal stole Pooky from Garfield as blackmail to get him to be nice to him. In one strip, Garfield was watching television with Pooky. After he finished watching a program, Garfield left leaving Pooky on the couch. The program changed to a documentary about bears nature while Jon walked by. Pooky and Jon once got into a whip-it-out-and-show-it competition, and Jon came in third place. Pooky's been around for 34 years and hasn't fallen apart.

Trivia

Garfield gave him the name Pooky, confirming that it is unknown if Jon did not give Pooky his name. Or it is possible that Jon had called him Pooky, which Garfield calls him.

One mouse tried to give Pooky as a birthday present to his son in one strip on February 18, 1989. Garfield was angry about it and after the strip ended, it is clear that Garfield took away Pooky from him. The mouse was probably lying about him having a kid's birthday and was just simply stealing Pooky.

In a December 1986 sequence, Pooky was squeezed by Garfield so hard that the cotton inside him became a blobby squiggle that enlarged his head. Jon fixed it by making Pooky have his body enlarged with extra cotton, making Pooky much more larger than Garfield and overweight as well. Garfield pulled up Jon's shirt for not fixing Pooky correctly. Pooky however was back to correct size in normal appearances.

Pooky only made two appearances on Garfield and Friends, which made hundreds of episodes. The episodes were Ode to Odie and The Caped Avenger. In "The Caped Avenger", Jon took Pooky to the washing machine, and Garfield dresses up as "The Caped Avenger" to find Pooky.

When Pooky first appeared, he had a mouth (a smile), but now his mouth is not visible.

Garfield called Pooky, "dumb, stupid, and silly-looking" in the first strip. But he never did that again ever.

Nermal is able to sleep on Pooky's lap. Garfield wishes that he could do that.

Pooky has either appeared or has been mentioned 183 times in the comic strip as of both 2011 and 2012, one of the most frequent appearances for a character apart from Jon, Garfield and Odie.

Pooky appears in The Garfield Show. In "Desperately Seeking Pooky", a dog named Hercules stole Pooky so he can have a friend since Hercules is supposed to scare off people since he is a guard dog. Garfield at first got angry at Hercules, but when using a female teddy bear doll and a walky-talky to trick Hercules into giving Pooky back, Garfield decided to give him three plush dolls as new friends.

In a 1992 strip Garfield went to wash Pooky, who was huge after his wash. Garfield was quite unhappy about that, despite in a 1980s strip he was having a dream about sleeping on a huge Pooky.